Stuck in endless loop when installing

Trent_Brown · September 13, 2022, 3:56pm

I'm unable to reinstall BTT. When I try, I end up in an endless loop when clicking the “Continue” button on the “BetterTouchTool Data Privacy” dialog followed by the “BetterTouchTool is now ready to use” dialog.

To uninstall, I trashed the application file, cleared the “Application Support” and “Preferences” folders, and then executed the command-line cleanup instructions on this page: folivora.ai - Great Tools for your Mac!

I do see these messages in the system.log file:

Sep 13 08:24:53 Trents-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: Coalition Cache Hit: app<application.com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool.2719255.2719261(501)> [19100]
Sep 13 08:24:53 Trents-MacBook-Pro Google Chrome Helper[82639]: Libnotify: notify_register_coalesced_registration failed with code 9 on line 2835
Sep 13 08:24:53 Trents-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (application.com.hegenberg.BTTRelaunch.2719859.2719865[69866]): Service exited due to SIGTERM | sent by BetterTouchTool[71879]
Sep 13 08:24:54 Trents-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: Coalition Cache Hit: app<application.com.hegenberg.BTTRelaunch.2719859.2719865(501)> [19110]

Chris_Anderson · November 22, 2022, 9:15pm

I have a similar issue - it runs, but I hit an endless loop:

Followed by

And then this re-appears:

Andreas_Hegenberg · November 22, 2022, 9:20pm

This is pretty much always some file permission problem (BTT can not write to its own data files).
Did you maybe recently restore from a Time Machine backup or rename your user account?

M0rg5 · October 13, 2023, 2:57am

I have the same, do not use Time Machine.

Paid version.

As per another report I restarted, and BTT runs again, but on attempt to get to settings the loop starts again and the only way out is to quit BTT. This only happened after update to Ventura 13.6.

I've both manually downloaded BTT and reinstalled, and uninstalled and reinstalled, and updated thru Brew - to see if either might fix, to no avail.

EDIT: I also created: "Bettertouchtool data privacy" LOOP [BTT breaking bug] - 4.277-42770, Ventura 13.6. - coz I can't use BTT till this is fixed! Feel free to delete either

Andreas_Hegenberg · October 13, 2023, 5:18am

So far this has always been caused by some sort of file permission error.

Often a macos restart will fix it. If that doesn’t help, the easiest way to fix it is by deleting the affected file:
~/Library/Preferences/com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool.plist (or fixing the permissions on that file)
BTT then recreates that file with correct permissions (this will cause it to lose the general settings, but your triggers won’t be affected)

M0rg5 · October 13, 2023, 5:48am

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool.plist worked! Triggers unaffected. WIll have to dig in to see what to set again.

Thanks for prompt reply!

While I have u - can u tell me the best way to have BTT CMD-SHIFT-4 capture screenshot (already disabled in Mac settings and working fine in BTT) AND create a file to /screenshots as per normal Mac behaviour?

EDIT: I'm playing with screenshot options, but can't see how to make CMD-SHFT-4 only bring up selection rect AND copy screenshot file (having the 'interative toolbar' appear IF selection rect appeared on keystroke would work, but can't see how to make selection rect AND copy file to DIR).

Andreas_Hegenberg · October 13, 2023, 7:22am

I think it should work with these options (so basically only providing a file path and checking the "additionally copy to clipboard" checkbox:

M0rg5 · October 13, 2023, 10:07am

That worked, thx.

Tho, there's nothing in there that shows it's actually 'selecting a region'?

Andreas_Hegenberg · October 13, 2023, 9:51pm

Doesn't the cursor change to the crosshair?

This uses the standard macOS screenshot functions, so you can also use these shortcuts once trigered:

space key: toggle between mouse selection and window selection mode
escape key: cancel interactive screenshot

M0rg5 · October 17, 2023, 3:17am

If I do what u advised, yes I get crosshair.

Yet that window yr showing doesn't detail anything re: selection mode.

Personally, I only ever want to use selection or screencapture modes, so having an option to bring up the 'interactive toolbar' with selection mode already selected was what I was looking for.
But beggars can't be choosers!

Didn't know about spacebar - thx!